The present invention relates to a one person wind-propelled sailing craft commonly referred to as a windsurf board or a sailboard. The art of sailboard design has rapidly developed as a consequence of the growing popularity of the sport of sailboarding.
Several aspects of sailboards have been the subject of sailboard manufacturing and of patents relating to sailboards. In particular, many prior art patents disclose different types of mast-boom-sail assemblies. Related to this, a number of developers have devised different joint assemblies between the mast and the sailboard to permit improved movement characteristics of the sail relative to the sailboard.
Most conventional sailboards are not equipped with rudders for steering, but rather are provided with centerboards or dagger boards which serve primarily to provide stability to the sailboard. A few prior art patents disclose sailboards which allow a sailboard sailor (sailboarder) to control movement of a rudder by means of his or her feet. Sailor-controllable rudders are desirable in order to better enable a sailboarder to steer his sailboard in desired direction of travel. Unfortunately, a sailboarder's hands are continuously occupied with holding and the sail and thus are not available to be devoted to a rudder. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,679,516 and 4,771,723 disclose inventions for an aft-mounted rudder which may be controlled by the sailboarder by means of a foot controlled steering assembly, and which is used in addition to a centerboard. U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,916 discloses an aft-mounted sailor-controllable rudder which is used in place of a centerboard.